USB drives: Sticking it to the consumer

For those who are technically savvy, you may be familiar with USB drives. These stick-shaped flash drives allow people to store and transport anywhere from 64 megabytes to 8 gigabytes of content, which can then be downloaded or run on any computer by simply plugging it into any USB slot. Now record labels are using these drives as a way to appeal to the digital consumer in an era where downloading is all the rage.

This past June, the Bob Marley estate released a 30^th Anniversary edition of Marley’s timeless album Exodus on a USB stick, becoming the first major label catalogue artist to do so. The album, which featured all three tracks on the album as well as three live videos from Marley’s 1977 performance at London’s Rainbow Theater, was only available to those who joined the Bob Marley Passport Fan Club at the cost of $45 a year, and only 4,000 of them were produced. And now Matchbox Twenty has jumped on the USB bandwagon by releasing their latest album, Exile on Mainstream, as a USB bracelet that’s exclusively available at Best Buy. The bracelet, includes all 17 songs from the album (released Oct. 2), music video How Far We've Come, another video with band interviews, a digital booklet with album art and other band items to customize your computer. Apparently Matchbox Twenty's management got the idea from none other than country legend Willie Nelson, who allows concertgoers to buy a USB bracelet that contains a downloaded version of that night's concert. (Some are available online at stores.allaccesstoday.com/willie.), and the band will be selling similar bracelets during its upcoming 2008 tour.

Now I like the idea of using USB bracelets as a way to give fans a high-quality recording of that night’s concert almost instantly, which really is the ultimate souvenir. It really is a win-win situation for both band and artist, since not only does it allow fans to relive their favorite moments from the show as much as they want, but it essentially thwarts bootleggers from selling or seeding inferior recordings of shows to die-hard completists who will purchase/download everything out there from an artist, regardless of quality. But if labels decide to use USB drives as a way to release or reissue albums, then it would join the mini disc, SACD, DualDisc and DVD Audio as a failure from an industry that’s looking for any possible way to recoup lost profits.

Essentially, record buyers (especially the causal fan) will only upgrade their collection and re-purchase albums if it is absolutely necessary. Unless it brings something revolutionary to the table, then no format will ever become as popular as the CD or the MP3 are today. This was the case when the compact disc made its debut in 1982 and proceeded to supplant the LP to become the standard medium for audio playback. For one, it was much more portable than bulky, cumbersome vinyl records; twice as much music could fit on a CD as opposed to a standard LP; you no longer had to get up in the middle of an album and flip it over to the next side, which was the case with both vinyl and cassettes; and most importantly, it was the first audio device that used digital audio instead of analogue, thus creating a high-fidelity sound quality that is far superior to that of traditional vinyl records. In essence, converting from vinyl records to CDs was pretty much a no-brainer.

But no record industry format since the CD has felt nearly as essential to the average consumer. How many people felt the urge to buy a smaller version of a format that was already portable and easy to handle to begin with? How many people have been willing to invest in $400-900 SACD/DVD-Audio systems to listen to a format that has slightly higher quality than a CD, but can’t be played in a car or ripped onto a computer? And how many people bought DualDisc reissues or versions that not only offered little in terms of extra content at a higher price (a few videos, DVD-Audio versions of the album, photos, lyrics, etc.), but easily scratches, jams in some audio systems, has no clear label to tell which side is the CD and which is the DVD, and isn’t even compatible on some CD players (since the thinner CD layer makes reading the CD side of a DualDisc harder than reading a conventional CD)? This is why none of these have replaced the CD in popularity, and why none of them will even come close to the MP3, which not only has the same sound quality, if not better, than a regular CD, but allows people to download and listen to music with the click of a button in minutes. And talk about being portable: the size of MP3 files allows people to download thousands of them on a single audio/mp3 player, and they can also burn them onto CDs to make their own mixes.

The USB drive does allow people easily play and download an album onto any computer, and the amount of space in a drive does allow a label to add quite a bit of extra content. But does the $35 price tag warrant purchasing a USB album for a few videos and a digital booklet? And with how paranoid the industry is in regards of piracy, can people download these files and then use them to burn them onto a disc, or will they be copy-protected? On top of that, there’s no way for someone to listen to this on a CD player, or in the car or on the go like one can with mp3 players. So while this would make for a great concert souvenir, as a format to release albums, it would crash land before it even gets off the ground.

--Jason Shoff